N1B8ISAV59

Winbond Electronics has been engaged in the development of 3Xnm and 2Xnm DRAM technologies, which will start to bear fruit in the second half of 2017.

Winbond is scheduled to enter mass production of DRAM chips using in-house developed 3Xnm technology in the third quarter of 2017, said company president Tung-Yi Chan. The company will move forward transitioning to more-advanced 2Xnm technology in 2018.

As for flash products, Winbond expects to start making SLC NAND chips using in-house developed 3Xnm technology in 2018, Chan indicated.

Winbond will budget a record NT$16.6 billion (US$534.5 million) in capex for 2017, Chan disclosed.

Winbond will be "fully committed" to optimizing its product and customer mix for a higher gross margin in 2017, Chan noted. Nevertheless, revenues for the year will have little room to grow due to limited growth in the company's production capacity.

In addition, Winbond will start operating a new 12-inch wafer fab in the second half of 2017, Chan said. Winbond expects to grow its overall 12-inch fab capacity to more than 50,000 wafers monthly sometime in the future, up from the current 40,000 units.

With the arrival of new technologies and capacity, Winbond is set to enter its maturity stage with stable profit growth starting 2017, Chan believes.

Winbond reported net profits of NT$2.9 billion or NT$0.81 per share on consolidated revenues of NT$42.09 billion for 2016. Of the company's total 2016 revenues, specialty DRAM products accounted for 49% followed by flash memory with 37% and mobile DRAM with 14%.